Best Board Games of All Time

Board games have come to be an integral part of everyday family life in the United States. We laugh over them, we cry over them, we get angry over them, these iconic symbols of America’s favorite pastimes have the potential to evoke a plethora of human emotions. So many people want to be the proud inventors of one of these relics of society, but only a few actually succeed in creating a legacy. Here are the top ten board games of all time.

1. Monopoly

There are few households in the United States without at least a dust-covered version of this game in some nook or cranny. Monopoly is the classic game that teaches kids to love money, as they circle the board buying or selling properties, paying taxes, and going to jail. The character pieces in this game are simple, everyday objects, made of metal. This game has even inspired sweepstakes for the restaurant McDonald’s; its impacts are that far-reaching.

2. Scrabble

Scrabble is certainly not a board game for the faint of heart, as it requires brute intelligence and a way with words and letters. In this game, players draw seven tiles at a time, each with one letter of the alphabet on them (there are also two elusive blank tiles, which can be used to represent a letter of choice by the player who lays it down). Players then connect their letters to those of other words that have been played by the other opponents, and scores are determined by how common each letter is in the English language, as well as where the tile is laid down triple word scores are the most sought-after spaces in Scrabble.

3. Parcheesi

Although Parcheesi has been marketed as “the classic game of India”, every American household that owns this game has been captivated by the utter simplicity of this game. Today, the game’s playing pieces are colorful animal figurines that might be found in India water buffaloes, tigers, camels, and elephants. The object of the game is to circle the board and get all four of your players “home” by rolling the dice. Safety spaces and blockades make this objective more difficult than it seems.

4. Risk

Risk has the perfect balance of luck and skill required in a board game, in my humble opinion. In Risk, players attempt to take over the world, using armies that fight by rolling the dice. Strategic placement of the colored cubes that represent armies can almost guarantee a player a win, except for the element of dice rolling in this classic board game. Because of this element, Risk can be fun for people of nearly all ages with a basic understanding of numbers and war.

5. Candyland

In terms of board games that appeal to children under the age of eight, Candylandmay be at the top of the list. The mere ambience created by this simple game evokes general feelings of happiness and being carefree. In this game, players draw cards that have different colored squares on them, and a player moves his piece to the next square of that color, until he reaches the end of the board. Passing through lollipop lands and gumdrop forests spark kid’s imaginations and pique their interests.6. Life

Life is the classic game in which players live out imaginary lives by circling a board, drawing life tiles and
earning money depending on their professions and levels of education. Disaster can strike, children are born, and insurance must be paid in this semi-realistic (but luckily stress-free because it is only a board game) representation of real life. Players move about the board in cars by spinning
a dial of the numbers one through ten.

7. Clue

Clue is one of the few board games to have inspired a movie, which was released in 1985. This game caters to those players with interest in mysteries, as players try to discover by moving through different rooms on the board just who killed Mr. Body. To correctly solve the mystery, a player must deduce which character killed him, as well as in which room the crime was committed and with which weapon. Although the concept may seem somewhat gruesome, this game has earned its place in the majority of American households.

8. Sorry!

Sorry encourages politeness from the players as they bump each other off their spaces. This four-player game requires opponents to draw numbered cards and successfully take all four of their playing pieces around the board and safely into their home spaces. Because only one playing piece can be on a space at a time, when a player lands on his or her opponent, he must say “sorry!” before sending that player back to the start.

9. Mouse Trap

Although this game can be frustrating at times, most people have played it at least once in a lifetime. Mice-shaped playing pieces move about the board on spaces that instruct players to build part of the mouse trap or collect cheese pieces. Once the mousetrap has been completely built, whichever player traps the other players in the mousetrap first wins. The colorful pieces in this game appeal to small children.

10. Chess

Although this game is not loved by all, most people at least have a basic understanding of this board game that simulates war. This may be one of the few board games that has been sold for upwards of $100,000, depending on the material from which the playing pieces are constructed. The object of this two-player game is to kill your opponent’s king, at which point you have won the war. The various playing pieces have different abilities in movement, and players alternate moving one piece at a time.

These are the top ten board games of all time, although there are many noteworthy board games that couldn’t make this exclusive list. Because board games have become such an integral part of American society, there are thousands of different games that have been invented, and a great many others that are sure to come in the future. Because of this, there are games out there for everyone, depending on one’s interests, and even if only for purposes of nostalgia, everyone should indulge in playing at least every once in a while.